2014 Townsville Ultimate Disc Inc. AGM

Location: Strand Park

Meeting Open 10/05/2014 15:17

Attendees: Christopher Ende, Michael Kramer, Luke Sturgess, Andrew Gosbee, David Dehollander, Scott Adams, Tim Saunders Laura Knecht, Ashlee Dodd, Michael Saunders, Sean Beveridge, Joshua Phipps

Apologies: Phil English, Matthew Hamilton

Item 1: President's Report

State of the Villainous Empire! (short version)

The year that was:

NQ Hat – We had 6 teams participate, aside from the draw it was a highly successful tournament, big thanks to Andy Gosbee for his help. The NQ Hat has grown to be QLD's third largest tournament missing out on the second spot by only half a dozen participants. 

Halibut – 2 teams were sent, new jerseys were designed, the teams were too big, it was great to see 32 NQ players participate

Women’s conference – what we’re doing is on track, it was a great networking opportunity

Fundraising tournament – for uni games, 4 teams, successful, covered the teams food for the week

Uni Games – 4thDiv 2 – fantastic result

Charters Towers and Mackay coaching/training we now have a number of level 1 coaches, QUDA supported by covering the costs for fuel

Mixed Nationals in Canberra equaled Townsville's highest result ever, 14th

Townsville's Mixed Nationals bid was successful and will be held on the 18, 19 & 20 of October

Townsville Ultimate was awarded Club of the year by QUDA, we were presented with a $150 rebel sport voucher which was used to purchase 8 agility poles, 50 cones and 2 whistles

Training commenced in January, under the guidance of Scott Adams and Dave Dehollander

Regionals, big learning experience for a number of players, for those that attended the Sunday training session they learnt a lot. Thank you to QUDA for the travel subsidy

We were nominated for the Team of the Year through the Townsville City Council Sports Awards where we made it to the final 3 nominations.  

Division 2 Campaign – 5th overall

Semester 1 – big changes for the league moving to a dual pool and timeslot format with 12 teams. Big thanks to the captains for making this a relatively easy transition

Website – Tyson has been working on this, pay-pal is coming! Check it out

AFDA registration – Big thanks to Laura for entering 200 people into the AFDA registration system

Schools program has been difficult to get going. QUDA is now taking over that initiative as they have more resources with the DO. It is hoped our level 1 coaches will be able to do the coaching

Kramer has applied for a number of grants however at this stage we haven’t been successful in securing any additional funding

Looking forward:

NQ Hat is coming up in Cairns June 21-22

Mix Nationals – There will be a team selection however at this stage we're unsure how that will take place

Halibut – we're probably sending two teams which Scott and Dave will be organising

Semester 2 – looking to modify the current format to a div 1/div 2 with the intention of higher level players in div 1 and the social league being div 2. Allows captains to be better supported in both formats

Mix Nationals will require bulk volunteers, website currently being developed, disc design being developed. At this stage jerseys will remain the same

A Women’s team is in the planning stages of being formed and will be led by Ash Dodd and Laura Knecht

Thank you to those that have helped out over the year, particularly Scott Adams, Dave Dehollander, Andy Gosbee, Time Saunders, Josh Phipps, Laura Knecht, Phil English, Michael Kramer and Matthew Finn

Thank you to Townsville City Council for your support through the Excellence in Sports Grant.

Thank you to James Cook University for your support through the JCUSA Clubs and Societies funding

Thank you to QUDA for the travel subsidies to attend Regionals and Halibut

Item 2: Other Business

TSVL - Attendance issues due to no commitment from players early on. Strategy moving forward should be upfront payments. TSVL is a league for regulars, so there doesn't need to be a grace period like with the Wednesday night league.

Mix Nationals Qualifier - Need to organise a Northern Regionals. (Andrew Gosbee)

Jersey Design for Mix Nationals - Scott Adams nominated to organise.

Grants Coordinator: Gatorade promotion successful, Michael Kramer attended Grants Clinic to better understand grant applications and what they're looking for.

Training:

-  Luke Sturgess suggested occasional organised training clinics separate to regular training. eg (Rise up). Luke Sturgess nominated for new position - Clinic Coordinator. (motioned J Phipps, seconded T Saunders)

- Training sessions/strategies to be reassessed

Tournaments: - Fundraiser Tournament for Uni Games earmarked for September (Andrew Gosbee)

Women’s Team - Committee formed with Ash Dodd and Laura Knecht

Item 3: Voting in New Committee

Position	Nominee	Motioned	Seconded	Successor
President	Chris Ende	Joshua Phipps	Andrew Gosbee	Chris Ende
	Tim Saunders	Scott Adams	Michael Kramer
Treasurer	Matthew Hamilton	Scott Adams	Laura Knecht	Matthew Hamilton
Secretary	Laura Knecht	Scott Adams	David Dehollander	Laura Knecht
	Joshua Phipps	Scott Adams	Sean Beveridge

Confirmed Positions- President (Christopher Ende), Treasurer (Matthew Hamilton), Secretary (Laura Knecht)

MEETING CLOSED: 16:15

State of the Villainous Empire! Part 2

Part 1 Can be found over here!

Picking up from where I left off:

Three members played on teams at Nationals this year. Swan and Dee both played with Cherry Bomb whilst Matt Finn played with Slamtown. Both teams provided a great learning experience for the players involved. Hopefully next year there’ll be some more representatives out there!

After a few misfires our AGM was finally held on the 1^st of May. The minutes will be posted as soon as our Treasurer sends me the attendance list. The Committee had a reshuffle and some fresh blood was brought in for the Secretary position:

President – Chris Ende
Secretary – Josh Phipps and Phil English
Treasurer – Matthew Hamilton

Matt Finn agreed to stay on as the League Director and also took the non-elected appointment of Vice President.

This year saw the second running of the NQ Hat and the first time being hosted in Townsville. After Cairns hosted a successful and enjoyable NQ Hat last year, the pressure was on for Townsville to be at least on par. Once again Townsville Blogger David Phang (in one of his shorter entries) was on hand to record the event http://townsvilleultimate.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/north-queensland-hat-ii-2013.html

The AGM in May was the first announcement to the membership that the Townsville Super Villain League was in the process of being formed. This league is comprised of four teams and each member was drafted into a team by the captains. The aim of the league is to cater for players that have developed beyond what the beginner league can provide, to provide a training environment for teams to build structure, and provide a higher level of ultimate for players to develop in preparation for upcoming tournaments. The Grand Final for Season 1 is scheduled for Monday the 12^th of August. If you’re interested in taking part in Season 2, please contact either Matt Finn or Scott Adams.

As a General Member of the QUDA Board, I was invited to participate in the QUDA Strategic Planning Meeting that was held on July 6th in Brisbane. This meeting was highly productive and the future is looking good with QUDA making a substantial commitment to Regional Development particularly for Mackay, Charters Towers and Cairns. If there is something that you feel strongly about and would like to see some action, feel free to contact me townsvilleultimate@gmail.com. 

Some of the commitments to Regional Development from QUDA are supporting Mackay in becoming an Incorporated Club. This is an important step for regional clubs as they’re often tasked with the responsibility of running a league. Being incorporated means that the club is recognised by the law as an entity much like an individual. This protects the club’s members and often allows the club to pursue grants independently of QUDA. QUDA is also assisting with discs, coaching courses and providing material for Ultimate to be delivered in schools. Certainly exciting times lie ahead for Mackay! 

On August 10^th Charters Towers will have its Healthy Lifestyle Festival and we’ve been invited to participate in an exhibition match to raise awareness of the sport. QUDA is throwing in some money to help with the cost of fuel for the Villains that are travelling. Make sure to let me know if you’re keen to attend and put on a great spectacle for the people of Charters Towers and hopefully they’ll start asking why it isn’t in their schools! 

Part 3 will be next week so until then, may your evil plans pan out well!

Evil Genius

State of the Villainous Empire! Part 1

The year kicked off with the locals partaking in some pick up indoor ultimate at the Aitkenvale PCYC. It was great to try a different form of Ultimate but unfortunately the venue really wasn’t up to scratch. We’ll look into this again after the semester 2 league and hopefully we can find a more suitable venue.

Shortly before the semester 1 league kicked off, Duncan informed us that he was leaving for WA (I’m really concerned about this trend of President’s moving to WA….). Duncan has been with the club for many years and has been a great contributor to the sport, not only at JCU but also through his work and community engagements. You will be missed sir!

Our Regionals campaign had a somewhat slow start this year with QUDA giving people minimal notice of when (and where) it would be held. Fortunately this was offset with a generous subsidy from QUDA which was around $150 per person to attend (Thank you QUDA!). A full write up by David Phang is available on the blog http://townsvilleultimate.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/northern-regionals-2013.html

The QUDA AGM was held on the same weekend as Regionals and the QUDA committee had some fresh blood elected in.

President - John McNaughton - president@quda.org
Secretary - Jo Ashdown - secretary@quda.org
Treasurer - Myall Hingee - treasurer@quda.org
General Members - Chris Ende, Emma Briggs

A part of my role is looking after Regional Development. At this stage that has primarily been securing funding for regional teams to attend Halibut, assisting with the establishment of Mackay as a new club, and supporting the group in Charters Towers to establish some regular pickup. In the not too distant future I hope to see a School program being rolled out and hopefully some support for players wanting to try and make the U19 team next year. If you have any ideas or concerns, feel free to contact me townsvilleultimate@gmail.com. 

Semester 1 League was the largest Townsville has seen, 173 active members across 10 teams (we wanted to push for 12 teams but with Duncan leaving we didn’t have the captaincy capacity)!  As far as results go, it was certainly a motley arrangement with the undefeated Fluro Fantasy going down to the bottom placed Purple Haze in the final round robin round. This result cost Fluro Fantasy the minor premiership and seemed to have a cascade effect as they narrowly lost to Tie Dyenosaurs in the semi-finals. It only goes to show, you gotta win them all! Congratulations go to The Seagulls for winning the final over the Tie Dyenosaurs.

Townsville had two representatives attend the U23 training camps, Dee and Matt Finn. By all accounts both played extremely well and it is encouraging to see Townsville players being considered for National Team selection. I have no doubt that Dee can make the team in 2015 if she keeps at it. Hopefully QUDA will attempt to bridge the gap between regional centres and high level ultimate player development in the coming year.

2013 was the first year that Townsville (and Queensland) sent a team to Division 2 Nationals. The team was formed with the strong core of Townsville players from Regionals and members of Firestorms Ignition, UQ Lovers and Griffith A-Team. Undoubtedly considered the underdogs by many, the team jelled together extremely quickly and we showed how strong we can be once we unleashed our inner mongrel!  A full write up by our injured correspondent David Phang (for those interested, rolling your ankle two weeks before Nationals is not a recommended training regime) is available on the blog http://townsvilleultimate.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/nationals-division-two-mens-open.html

Part 2 will be next week so until then, scheme well!

Evil Genius